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Neolithic (4500-2000 BC)

The Neolithic or New Stone Age is the period where humans took up agriculture as a way of life after being nomadic hunter gatherers.

Around 4000BC the ideas and technologies of farming and possibly livestock crossed from continental Europe into England. Farming then quickly spread across the British Isles. This change to farming brings artefacts in the form of querns and sickles as well as postholes, rubbish pits and other remains. The appearance of all this evidence once made archaeologists believe that there had been an invasion of farmers from the continent. However this is no longer believed to be the case due to data from DNA testing. Instead it is believed the change was from small scale immigration and trade from the continent, with the introduction of non-native plants and animals.

The Neolithic farmers settled in small communities and cleared land for barley and wheat and raised herds of cattle, pigs and sheep. These communities also enabled the production of large projects such as the building of long barrows, causewayed camps and henges.